With all the glass containers in the wide space, Luna Selene's walk-in closet could pass for a private gallery. Duskbane Estate itself was a collector's heaven, but this chamber felt curated to seduce the eye. Every wall was lined with velvet panels, gilded drawers, and glass domes housing pieces seen in magazines, auctioned at ridiculous prices.
It was beauty displayed like power — and Luna Selene possessed both in excess. Sitting before a golden vanity, in her slate-gray evening gown, she seemed to be asserting the fact.
She lifted a pair of earrings — platinum vines with teardrop rubies — and tilted her head as she fastened one, her eyes in a trance of her own reflection as her finger traced her neck, descending to her bare shoulder in awe.
Behind her, Elara lingered in the doorway, her mind still warring over whether what she saw yesterday was a dream or something her dazed mind made up.
"Come here."
Elara startled at the whisper.
Luna's aquamarine eyes met hers in the mirror, stretching her lips in something that might have been a smile. "Here," she said, passing her a glass tray laden with jewelry.
Elara's fingers trembled as she took it. Luna picked jewels from the case and piled them on the tray with deliberate, almost ritualistic precision.
After a pregnant pause, Elara tried to speak. "Luna, I—"
"Sit."
Elara blinked, glancing around. There were no chairs — only the gleaming marble floor.
"Sit," Luna repeated, her hands still gliding through her jewel cases.
Hesitantly, Elara sank down onto the balls of her feet, clutching the tray like a lifeline.
Luna turned from the mirror to take her in. The air grew taut with anticipation. Then, in an instant, she raised her hand, Elara's breath caught — but the sting of the slap didn't come.
Instead, something cool brushed her ear — a delicate weight.
Her hand flew up instinctively, fingertips grazing the fine curve of metal.
She blinked up, startled. "What…?"
Luna smiled faintly.
"Model for me."
She was close enough that Elara could feel her perfume — sandalwood and rose — seeping into her skin. Before Elara could protest, Luna was already fastening another earring on her.
"Too soft," Luna said under her breath, removing one. "This one has more truth."
Elara fidgeted, her hands twisting in her lap, words dying on her tongue. The room was too bright, too perfumed, too intimate.
Luna's attention was unwavering, eyes narrowed slightly as she tilted Elara's chin this way and that, scrutinizing with th glare of an appraiser. "You have good lines," she said absently, "Artists in my patronage would kill for a night with you."
Elara's eyes snapped up to hers in horror.
"As a model, I mean." Luna Selene smiled, but now Elara felt mortified.
She bit her lip, knees trembling beneath her with fear and confusion.
Was perhaps Luna Selene involved in the murder? Was this her way of sounding her out? Was Luke dead at all? She hadn't seen his face, and it was really dark...
Her frantic eyes fell on roses spilled across one side of the oak table in endless waves of red, their scent cloying almost like blood…
Every nerve screamed at her to run. A thorn glinted near the base of one stem, caught a shard of light. Luna followed her gaze, then smiled again.
She moved like waves, her silver-blonde hair glowing in the evening sun, a nymph out of water against the sunlit glass. That was the closest you could get to defining her presence.
Did she know?
Elara's heart hammered. She lowered her eyes quickly, as though hiding the thought.
Luna Selene glanced back and then turned around.
Elara flinched, expecting the vase to be hurled at her. That night's humiliation and trauma still burned on her skin.
Luna picked a single rose and kept it in one corner of the tray with another magnanimous smile. "Here."
She unclasped one necklace from the pile, holding it against Elara's throat to study the effect, "Roses are beautiful, wouldn't you say, Elara?"
"Ha?…Ah, Yes."
"Mm." Luna picked next, a web of gold and diamonds, and held it near Elara's collarbone. "But roses have thorns. They can be medicine, cosmetics, even food. They are more than their beauty. Still…" she slipped one into the vase, "…a spectator sees only the bloom, plucking it for vanity."
Elara froze. Was she the rose here?
"Are you saying that's the fault or fate of the rose if it is harassed?" She pushed her hand away, voice tight.
"Harassed?" Luna lifted a brow in faint amusement, shoving the necklace back in the pile. "I imagine this has been… complicated for you."
Elara's lips trembled as she stood up, placing the tray on the table. Luke was dead, but that didn't erase what had been done to her.
"What is complicated in this?"
Luna met her eyes through the glass. "Boys, dear… they are not good at expressing emotions. Their egos are delicate—especially Alpha-borns. They act on impulse, and girls these days... they misread it. I'm sure you can see why now."
"You—everyone watched while he humiliated me!"
"Did he?" Luna's lips curved faintly as she fiddled with her lipstick case. "Or did he make a mistake that became a spectacle? I doubt he meant harm. Boys rarely do—they're simply driven by impulse. Especially Alphas."
"A mistake?"
A guy groped her in the dining hall, in front of the whole pack, in front of her friends, her father!
Selene's lips curled faintly as she applied a nude shade. "You are such a pretty girl. I'm sure he wasn't your first admirer. When boys like girls, they get impulsive, and you seem to have really taken it to heart. Any girl in your place would have been flattered."
When she found the girl too stunned to speak, she backtracked.
"Trust me, I'm a mother. He regrets it a lot. God knows where the poor boy is now, drowning in sorrow."
Six feet under. That's where, Elara hoped viciously, her pulse spiking.
Selene did some last touches. "This gets me to my point. You understand how the 'misunderstanding' is disturbing the staff's morale, yes? I'm sure your father wouldn't want that after we've already discussed the issue."
Elara's breath hitched. The implication was clear: her father had accepted their compensation, so she should shut her mouth and smile pretty.
"You act like he didn't humiliate me in front of the whole pack!" Elara finally snapped, "Like what he did wasn't a crime."
"It wasn't a crime, Crime, sweetheart?" Luna Selene chuckled, standing up to meet her eyes, "Is it because you study law that you see everything through such an intense lens?" Selene smiled as if in sympathy, "A position has been arranged for you with Rhysdottir Energy's legal division. Prestigious work—will look good on your résumé and even better for your father's reputation after everything that has happened."
Elara flinched. "So I'm given money to stay silent?"
Rhysdottir Pack was a worldwide corporation leading the Energy Sector. Was she offering her a permanent place in their legal team when she had hardly graduated, just so they could sweep it under the rug?
"You're given an opportunity." Selene tapped her diamond earrings in Elara's ears. "Or would you rather fight a case, broadcast for the country, you'll eventually lose after the best lawyers in the country assassinate your character and dig up dirt on your 'family'. Duskbane won't risk their alliance for a human anyway, so what would that leave you with?
She stood up straight, scoffing in mirth while she clasped an emerald necklace decked in silver. She watched the girl's face contort in disgust and rolled her eyes
"You are welcome to call it patriarchy, misogyny, whatever you like, but..." Selene went on, picking different bags to match her outfit. "You are a smart girl, Elara. Don't squander this on outrage."
Elara's nails dug into her palm, her voice cracking. "…Would you say the same if it were your daughter?"
Luna Selene froze for a sec, her cold eyes meeting hers in the mirror.
"My daughter..." she snapped, "wouldn't be serving men in skimpy skirts."
She turned around to smirk at the shocked girl, "Besides, I'm sure it wasn't your first time flapping your blouse either, so why not just be happy you got something out of it this time?"
Her words twisted her stomach. Elara's breath came too fast, clutching her chest.
"Keep those, you will need them." She pointed to the earrings, "Now, why don't you and your little friend help in the kitchen?"
Selene turned around, her dress flowing—
'CLANG! CRAAAASH!'
Luna turned around to see the earrings in the heap of broken glass. Elara had taken the earrings off and thrown them.
"You ingrate...!" In an instant, Luna Selene's eyes flashed to the other end of the room, and the next second, her clawed hand was strangling her.
Elara's feet dangled as she dug her nails into Luna Selene's arm.
"You dare insult me! You, a mere worthless human?!"
"Luna!"
"Luna Selene!"
The noise had created a commotion, and several pack members barged in, gasping at the sight. Luna Selene growled at the annoyance and threw her to the side.
"You are one miserably lucky bitch."
Flicking her hair back, she climbed over Elara's foot to address the help.
"Clean this up."
Luna Selene's measured heel-clicks echoed over the trembling girl, coughing down at the floor. The maids threw a brief, pitiful glance at her before hurriedly handing Luna her purse.
As soon as she left, Sally was held back by two maids, barged in.
"Elara!" Sally barged in, her eyes wide with alarm. Crossing the room, she caught her friend by the arms.
Elara coughed, clutching her throat with only one thought in her head: there was no way Luna Selene knew if Luke was really dead.